FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — Have you ever wondered what it would be like to try and do yoga with tons of playful pups jumping all over you?
Well, we did and we decided to go and find out!
We attended a private small scale Puppy Yoga session with Pamela Kato from Bodyworks of Northeast Florida and Dionna Sowers from the Nassau Humane Society at the Atlantic Rec Center in Fernandina Beach. Both organizations host the event, which accepts $25 donations at the door.
"It's puppies, who doesn't love a good puppy?" Sowers said. "It's certainly not a perfect yoga class but it's fun and that's what yoga is all about."
The class is usually hosted when the humane society receives a litter of puppies needing some human interaction before being put up for adoption.
All of the puppies (eight boys and one girl) have Game of Thrones inspired names; one of our favorites being Dothraki.
We decided to break down the pros and cons of our puppy yoga experience using quotes from the event coordinators themselves.
PROS:
- Stress Relief: "Yoga is to release yourself from what's going on, it's a stress reliever," Kato said.
- Help socialize the pups: "The puppies love it, the Humane Society needs as many volunteers as possible to come out and play with these puppies because they need the interactions with humans to socialize them," Kato said.
- Tire the pups out: "They are going to go home and sleep very well," Sowers said.
- Fun therapy: "Humans need that interaction with that soft little puppy, it's great therapy," Kato said.
CONS:
- Not much yoga is done: "We just come and enjoy the puppies, so we try to do the yoga poses but -- yeah, not as much yoga goes on as playing with puppies," Kato said.
- Puppies aren't yet potty trained: "Bring an old mat or you can always clean it or wipe it off but the puppies do tend to piddle," Kato said.
Even with the very few cons, we had an amazing time trying puppy yoga and we would 10/10 recommend puppy yoga to anyone wanting to relax with a litter of playful pups. We'd definitely do it again.
For more information about the next puppy yoga session and the adoptable puppies check out the Nassau Humane Society's Facebook Page or click here.